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Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

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A spinoff of Ace Attorney, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Gyakuten Kenji in Japan, lit. "Turnabout Prosecutor") landed its American and European releases in February 2010. Investigations stars Edgeworth as the main character, along with sidekicks Dick Gumshoe and the newcomer self-declared thief Kay Faraday. The game took on a more traditional point-and-click adventure game style, with walking sprites exploring areas rather than simply moving from scene to scene. Rather than engaging in courtroom battles, Edgeworth solves mysteries through Logic, and by countering arguments from witnesses, culprits and the cocky Interpol Special Agent Shi-Long Lang and his silent partner, Shih-na.

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A sequel, Gyakuten Kenji 2, was released in Japan in February 2011. It features a system called "Logic Chess". This does not necessitate playing chess, but instead acts as a visual metaphor. When Edgeworth can't find a fault in the witness' testimony, he can instead ask one of two questions. Asking the correct one will cause the player to "take" one of their "pieces", allowing the "game" to move further. An incorrect choice will have the reverse happen, and the player will lose points from their Truth meter. There are no plans for the sequel to be localized at this time, but there is a Let's Translate on YouTube (complete as of September 29, 2013) while a full Fan Translated patch (subtitled "Prosecutor's Path" and featuring a complete localization of the dialogue) is currently available in English, and can be found here. To keep consistent with other Ace Attorney entries on TV Tropes, all entries referring to the sequel use the Prosecutor's Path localized information rather than the official Japanese information. note The reason why the game went into No Export for You territory was because the team itself was unable to get together in the timeframe whilst everyone was moving and leaving after the game was completed.

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The first Investigations game was released for iOS and Android on December 8, 2017 in both English and Japanese territories. Gyakuten Kenji 2 was later released for the same platforms in Japan on December 21, 2017.

Note that this page contains spoilers for the sequel, and may not be properly marked at some points.

These games provide examples of:

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Both games

Always Murder: Of course. Edgeworth can't even take a simple plane trip without someone winding up dead in an elevator (and himself accused of the crime). The second game even has an assassination attempt that takes place during a faked assassination attempt, which is then used by the case's culprit to obscure his actions in the very real murder that ends up taking place!

Amateur Sleuth: Edgeworth does far more of the detective work than any of the actual police. Somewhat justified, as a majority of the prosecutors and police are more concerned with getting a guilty verdict than actually finding the truth. It doesn't stand out as much as in the main series, since in-universe prosecutors and the police are shown working as partners in investigations. It just so happens that Edgeworth is assigned Gumshoe as his detective...

Ambidextrous Sprite: Pretty much everyone, but it's particularly noticeable with Franziska, who gets another mole on both sides of her face because of this trope, and the Pink Princess, on whose shoulder the kanji is reversed.

Arc Welding: Each game has its respective cases interrelated in some way, more so than the rest of the Ace Attorney games. Possibly to make up for the lack of recurring rival prosecutor.

Despair Event Horizon: How the Life Meter is justified in this game: If it runs out due to Edgeworth making too many mistakes, he concludes that the truth of the case is "lost for all eternity" and gives up.

Dude, Where's My Respect?: Edgeworth gets left out of the loop and pushed to the side by Lang in the first game, and is even in danger of losing his prosecutor position in the second. Presumably this is to give him (and the player) the challenge of solving a case while under the kind of handicap that defense lawyers have to deal with.

Eureka Moment: Taken rather literally: "Eureka!" is Edgeworth's unique exclamation for making a connection with Logic. More traditionally, about once per case Edgeworth hits a brick wall in his deductions, only for someone to say or do something mostly unrelated that causes this. He immediately flashes back to a number of previous hints, and the player is given several new pieces of logic to sort through and reach a conclusion.

Evil vs. Evil: In both games the Big Bad rivals someone who is probably just as nasty as them. For the first game Alba had to deal with The Starscream that was Manny Coachen, who wanted Babahl to become the representative of the reunited Codohpia, likely so he could leverage Alba's smuggling ring for his own purposes once the country was reunified. In the second game the manipulative and misanthropic Simon Keyes loathes the villainous triumvirate of Patricia Roland, Blaise Debeste, and the impostor Dai-Jun Huang; a team that successfully arranged an assassination of the real Dai-Jun Huang and even planned to turn on their hired killer. And at the very end of the second game, Sirhan Dogen halts Shelly de Killer's decision to kill Keyes.

Extremely Short Timespan: The whole first game takes place over about three days (contrasted with the nominal separation of months at a time in other Ace Attorney games), with Edgeworth solving four murders in a little over three days (case 2 happens on one day, 1 and 3 happen the next, 5 happens the night after that). The second game only kicks up about two weeks later and finishes up in about as much time. The fourth and fifth cases of the second game occur over the course of two days, allowing none of the characters to even get a wink of sleep in between.

The Ghost: Phoenix Wright. He's referred to obliquely as "him", "that lawyer", "a certain defense attorney", and even "the guy in the blue suit", but never by name (even though it's no big secret that Phoenix and Edgeworth and Larry are friends), and only makes one background appearance in each game—his cameo in the first game is extremely easy to miss, at that.

Hypercompetent Sidekick: In both games, Edgeworth gets around Jurisdiction Friction by finding someone with authority to investigate the case and signing on as that person's "assistant." Invariably, that means doing all the actual work.

Jurisdiction Friction: It is difficult to find a single case in which someone doesn't claim authority over the crime scene and demand that Edgeworth leave.

Kleptomaniac Hero: Averted for once: it's "Jotted down in the Organizer" unless the object is explicitly given to Edgeworth and/or clearly his to take.

Left Hanging: Both games are notable for leaving almost no loose threads hanging. It's even subverted with the second case of GK 2: one may wonder how a blind assassin was able to read (much less write) a correspondence chess memo to send to Knightley... until the fifth case, where it's revealed that Simon Keyes acted as a middleman who translated the memos in order to eventually kill off Knightley.

Life Meter: The usual explanation for how this works is absent here, but Edgeworth can evidently deplete his lifemeter by thinking wrong, if the player screws up the logic segments. Mistakes take him "further from the truth", as he explains it. Presumably depleting the whole thing causes Edgeworth to entirely lose the thread he was following and become confused, thus letting the culprit slip through his fingers.

Mundane Made Awesome: Logic in the first game and Logic Chess in the sequel are spectacular visualizations for... stringing thoughts together or picking information out of an uncooperative witness.

Musical Spoiler: Whenever you hear "Confrontation: Presto" playing, you know the person you're cross-examining is the killer. Played With in the sequel though, where "Presto" is often used for characters unconnected to the murder as a fake-out. Examples include Jay Elbird in Case 2, and John Marsh in Case 5.

No Smoking: Hardboiled homicide detective Tyrell Badd always has a white stick in his mouth, but it's eventually revealed to be a lollipop. He even keeps a mirror in his coat "to keep an eye out on who is behind him". It's possible this is a Kojak reference. Who loves ya, Badd?

One Degree of Separation: In both games, the murderers are all connected to each other, although the ones from the second game do not belong to a particular group, unlike the first. See Arc Welding above.

Parrot Exposition: You could make a drinking game out of the times somebody repeats a key word or phrase in the form of a question. (In the form of a question?)

Rule of Three: In most of the cases, the third person to come under suspicion is the actual killer.

In nearly every situation Edgeworth's inner monologue would make it clear even to Gumshoe what you're supposed to do next. When you press the testimony for which you must present evidence, Edgeworth will think — and sometimes say out loud — that there is something suspicious about that part, and if you reach the end of the testimony, Edgeworth will make some commentary on the testimony, providing a hint as to the evidence that must be presented (In Case 5, Edgeworth will say once that the relevant evidence was hidden away, and is referring to the wire inside the clock in Babahl). This is probably because many fans mentioned they liked the way he thinks during his brief turn as defense attorney in the third game.

Penalties in the game always take off 10% of your life bar, thus you have 10 chances before a game over, which is pretty generous compared to the roller coaster of penalties amounts in the previous games. The penalties are beefed up to 20% when Alba gets annoyed at one point by your constant time wasting with your questioning so you only have 5 chances left. Although in the sequel's final case, the final boss Simon Keyes beefs up the penalty to 50%.

Thief Bag: Kay, befitting a Great Thief such as herself (in her mind, anyway), wears a pink-and-white-swirl variation on her shirt. If you look closely you can see the same pattern on her father's bandanna, an interesting piece of foreshadowing.

To Be Lawful or Good: Edgeworth's major decision in the last case of the first game, over whether to use a piece of illegal evidence to find the truth, boils down to this. He uses it. In the second game, he's faced with a decision over whether to sacrifice his badge to continue to defend Kay Faraday, and he does.

In the first case, the killer claimed to have lost his keys and asked a security guard to open the door to "his" office for him. The absence of the security guard's prints on his door, combined with some other evidence and Logic, suggests that he tricked her into opening a different door that she thought was his.

In a later case, the absence of blood on the hilt of a knife that was found inside a victim suggests that the hilt was switched, as there were several knives with hilts and blades that fit each other.

Lauren's father gets killed by her boyfriend. It's further implied that the boyfriend had figured out the father's identity, and was blackmailing him into helping with his staged kidnapping by threatening her safety.

We have QuercusAlba, from Case 5. He's a reminder that there are politicians in the real world who dabble in illegal and crude affairs behind the backs of those they represent and abuse their powers to get away with it.

Always Murder: More obvious in case 3, where the crime is originally just a standard kidnapping.

Amoral Attorney: Calisto Yew takes this to its logical conclusion, murdering her own defendant and a witness. Then again, she isn't a "real" attorney, she just poses as one. We also have prosecutor Jacques Portsman, who is the killer in the first case and also happens to be a member of the Big Bad's crime syndicate. According to Gumshoe he's been suspected of tampering with evidence for some time.

Anachronic Order: As a flashback case, case 4 is this but is also predecessor to everything that has happened to that point in the entire series (previous flashback cases included). The true sequence of the first game is chapter 4, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 1, chapter 5.

Anachronism Stew: Case 4 is set before anything else in the franchise, but has a flat screen TV, color security video with sound, and video on tape. While the first two aren't bizarre for 2011, it is bizarre when chronologically later games use less modern TVs and black and white photo.

Armor-Piercing Slap: Unlike the main series, Franziska will turn her whip on Edgeworth. She'll whip him a good number of times in required scenes, more if you press certain things or present the wrong evidence. Edgeworth and Gumshoe are also her victims-by-proxy whenever she doesn't want to whip the person who wronged her.

Probably Lance Amano from the third case except that he's not actually a victim.

Manny Coachen wins the prize for Assholiest Victim in the series. Not only did he murder Defector from Decadence Cece Yew and get away with it due to the Amano Group's influence, but he also tried to usurp his "boss" Alba by ensuring Palaeno became the new Ambassador of Cohdopia. The cast even notes he was as much of a selfish prick as his killer.

Subverted with Colin Devorae. It's initially thought that he was an escaped convict who was killed because he tried to steal the ransom money for himself, but it turns out that he was forced into Taking the Heat for Ernest Amano, and Lance most likely blackmailed him into participating in the kidnapping.

Back for the Finale: Larry again. A rarity as he usually shows up in the same game before the last case.

Bait-and-Switch Boss: The killer from case 4 turns up in the final case, and you'd expect them to be revealed as the head of the criminal syndicate, right? Nope: it's either the shifty looking Colias Palaeno or the doddering Quercus Alba, both of whom have suspicious names in the Japanese version (Damian and Carnage, respectively). While both of these characters are awesome, a section of the fans would have preferred Calisto Yew to have been the real Big Bad.

Completely averted with Colias Palaeno. When Edgeworth asks if he can investigate, Palaeno says to go right ahead. No questions, no obstructionism, nothing worse than a polite request that you not touch the Primidux Statue (since it's a national treasure).

Gumshoe leaves out details from his testimony and brings suspicion on himself as a result because he doesn't want it to get out that he bought a swiss roll with Kay, thus causing her to break her promise not to take anything from strangers, even though her father, the one he was trying to keep this from, was already dead.

Big Bad: Quercus Alba, current ambassador of Allehbast, is the leader of the international smuggling ring Franziska has been investigating since before the game even started. He ordered the murder of Cece Yew, thus kickstarting the KG-8 incident in the game's backstory. He personally kills Manny Coachen and Mask☆DeMasque II, kickstarting Case 5. He's also responsible for the counterfeit bill chaos in the Republic of Zheng Fa. And it takes a significantly long amount of time to prove all of his misdeeds because of his stubbornness and his extraterritorial rights as an ambassador.

Big Damn Heroes:The final case takes this to an art form. No fewer than four people burst into the room to save the day during the final showdown with the villain over the course of the confrontation. They even hang a lampshade on it when after a dramatic shout of HOLD IT!, everyone looks around to see who it was, and it turns out to be the random forensics guy with no name or portrait.

Several name puns are in non-English languages — for example, Quercus Alba = the scientific name for the white oak, Colias palaeno= the scientific name for the Moorland Clouded Yellow and Shi-Long Lang = Chinese for "soldier dragon wolf" — the "soldier dragon" of the "wolf" family.

Also, "shifu" is Chinese for "master", which is fitting coming from Lang's respectful subordinates. It also, in broken English, looks / sounds like Chief.

Blood-Stained Letter: A directives card from ten years ago has a bloodstain on it, showing that the order was carried out.

Brick Joke: In case 3, Lang's agents sound off from one to a hundred. Lang gets annoyed at this and tells them that in his book, everyone is number one. Later on in case 5, Lang's men sound off with a chorus of ones.

Edgeworth's respect for Manfred von Karma is emphasized here for Dramatic Irony, but it also turns out that Ernest Amano, another person he respects, is also a criminal. It's not surprising since the two were close financial pals.

Ambassador Palaeno evidently placed a great deal of trust and respect on Manny Coachen, constantly talking about how he let the guy do all the important work for him and how much he relied on him, and is outright shocked when he is revealed to have been a genuine criminal.

Badd when he realized Calisto Yew betrayed both him and Byrne Faraday.

The Bus Came Back: Not counting all the characters last seen in Trials and Tribulations, for the first time since the first game ... Missile came back!

Busman's Holiday: The first game in particular is a rather blatant use of the trope, most evidently in case 2 (a flight that happens to turn into a murder case wherein Edgeworth ends up being the one to discover the body and takes it upon himself to reveal the real killer).

But Thou Must!: A notable one near the end of the game, even by Ace Attorney standards. When the time comes to finally confront Quercus Alba, Edgeworth is presented with a personal moral quandary; he must choose between finally bringing an end to Alba's crimes through the use of illegally obtained evidence, or pursuing the path of the Law and letting Alba get away. The choice is presented to the player much like the choice was presented in Justice for All about whether it is more important to save an innocent life by allowing a murderer to go free and condemning another innocent to death or to allow justice to be served at the cost of the hostage's life. The difference here is it doesn't actually turn out to be much of a choice. Choosing not to present the illegal evidence simply results in all the other characters pressuring Edgeworth until he decides that the the illegality of the evidence is subjective anyway and proceeds to present it.

Butterfly Knife: The Yatagarasu's Key is this. This feature allows two different characters to bring a weapon into a secure area under the pretense that it is merely a key. Fittingly enough, it has a butterfly themed motif, due to its connection to Codohpia.

Kay: Dark skies of evening, when no other bird dares to take wing, one alone remains all-seeing! Now, witness the true power of a real, modern-day Robin Hood!

Call-Back: When the fifth case seems to involve a flying entity, Franziska mentions that she has been involved in two cases with involving flying people before. This is a reference to "Turnabout Big Top" and "Bridge to the Turnabout" in the Phoenix Wright Trilogy.

Franziska: I'll make sure each and every person on this stand is declared guilty. Edgeworth: You are aware that there are people besides the defendant who stand at the podium, right? Franziska: I don't care! You'd just better make sure that you never find yourself standing there.

Shi-Long Lang's Not so fast!, which is fitting as he's not a lawyer of any kind but an Interpol agent. He also goes on a Hurricane of Aphorisms when he brings up his scroll and begins reciting: "Lang Zi says: ...".

The Cavalry: Several different parties burst in to assist Edgeworth during the finale, usually with a dramatic "HOLD IT!". Two of the more literal instances are Shi-Long Lang returning with his army of 100 agents to announce that Alba's diplomatic immunity was revoked and Babahl's embassy guards stopping Alba and his own army of guards from leaving.

Chekhov's Boomerang:The Yatagarasu's Key from cases four AND five. It starts out as a key, then it becomes a weapon, then a key again, then the weapon part becomes a key. Finally, as a weapon, it becomes the ultimate key to defeating the Big Bad. Allebahst's Primidux Statue also gets more than its fair share of use in the last leg of of the fifth case.

In the first case, Gumshoe delivers the line "So I guess only a GREAT cat burglar could get in! That must be who our culprit is!" The person who got into Edgeworth's office was a burglar. Or more specifically, the last member of the Yatagarasu thief group, Detective Tyrell Badd. Good guess, Gumshoe.

Larry does it again in the fifth case and pulls off a Big Damn Heroes with none other than Wendy freaking Oldbag.

Missile's fondness for Samurai Dogs made him a useless option in the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game. Come case five in Investigations, though, it comes in handy during the investigation.

Early in Case 2, Cammy Meele's ability to understand Borginian is used to translate some of Lablanc's statements. Near the end, this is used to prove Cammy's role in the smuggling ring, and that she wiped out the victim's blood with a piece of Borginian cloth.

*Click* Hello: Badd gets the drop on Calisto Yew during the last case.

Cloudcuckoolander: In case 3, you meet Lauren Paups. You quickly learn that's she's...really out in her own little world.

Co-Dragons: In different ways, Calisto Yew/Shih-Na and Manny Coachen to Quercus Alba in the first game.

Computer Equals Monitor: Averted in case 2 of the first game. The group finds a cell phone with a broken screen, but some experimentation shows its internals are still fine, and another character is able to transfer a case-relevant photo off of it to another phone.

Concealing Canvas: Edgeworth's office has a variation—instead of a painting canvas, it's the frame for a suit jacket he used to wear.

Continuity Nod: Has plenty of these, usually when you meet up with a fellow character from another game.

There's also a very minor one in case 3 —if you look behind the stage at the stadium, you can see a sign for "Troupe Gramarye", as well as the Gavinners' logo.

If you examine the sign up during the re-creation scene, it mentions the Gavinners and Max Galactica vs Troupe Gramarye as upcoming events.

At one point, Franziska discounts some evidence by pointing out that, "people can't fly". Edgeworth then claims to have worked on a case involving a flying person (3-5), and after a pause, Franziska realizes that she's actually worked on two (2-3 and 3-5).

Kay asks if she can keep a bear statue that she found in Edgeworth's possession, referencing 2-4.

If you examine the Judge's seat in Case 4, you get an exchange about Edgeworth having a nightmare about being squashed by the Judge's gavel. This nightmare is a reference to the one Phoenix has at the beginning of 2-1 and 2-4. Same case, if you examine the fire extinguisher in the Court Hallway, Edgeworth will muse how a person getting hit over the head with that could lose a memory or two...which is exactly what happened to Wright in 2-1, when he was bashed over the head with one by that trial's villain prior to the trial.

On the airplane, Edgeworth recalls a traumatizing experience when the plane has a major case of turbulence that reminds him of an earthquake, then he sees an elevator, lampshades this, then sees a dead body inside. You have to respect the guy for being able to hold it together for the entire case, the only time he panics is just after he sees the body.

Manfred Von Karma boasts that he would have found Manny Coachen guilty in three minutes.

The ladders and stepladders -conversation appears in the first one, between Edgeworth (ladder) and Kay (step-ladder). Kay comments that from a thief's perspective, the best kind is a rope ladder. Miles thinks that from a prosecutor's perspective, all ladders are equally guilty - of being dangerous during an earthquake.

Also in the third case, there is a Stage with the Gavinners band logo on it, a little sign (that can only be seen during scrolling sequences) saying " <- Troupe Gramarye" and the 'Love Letter' from Viola of Tender Lender.

If you're paying very close attention in the third case as well, you may notice that the real Proto Badger is the Bellboy Who Swore the Affidavit from the first game.

A Running Gag in the first three games is a detective in Criminal Affairs talking to himself, usually image training or some sort. In Rise From The Ashes, he can be found writing a novel where the killer uses a tape to fake a gunshot, which is exactly what Calisto Yew did in Turnabout Reminiscence.

Larry mentions that he dressed up as Santa Claus once before at Gourd Lake.

In a discussion about the Steel Samurai, whom Franziska was unfamiliar with, Edgeworth reminds her of the Nickel Samurai, which brings up some traumatic memories because he was the very subject of the court case that Franny was shot for prosecuting.

Conviction by Counterfactual Clue: A very minor example. During one crime scene recreation in case 3, Edgeworth deduces that the culprit must be right handed based on the location of the wound and blood from where he was struck. However, it's entirely possible that a left-handed person could have hit him back-handedly or just stood to the right of Edgeworth. While not case-breaking or definitive by itself, it does steer suspicious toward the real guilty party.

Contrived Coincidence: The whole game, full stop. One day Edgeworth finds himself on a plane when some turbulence causes him to black out and then is accused of killing a man found in an elevator on the plane. The day after that, he's at an amusement park delivering a ransom to save the kidnapped son of a friend...when that turns into a murder too. While doing this, he stumbles across a girl he met years ago when first working as a prosecutor during a case that involved the murder of her father. Then he returns to his office to find the body of a police officer lying next to his book case. All these incidents are related, despite the fact Edgeworth's presence at all of them is no more than simple good luck. The final case pulls these events together but only explains that they are related, not that they have any meaningful relation to each other. The plot is driven purely by Edgeworth being in the right place at the right time.

Cool Key: The Yatagarasu's Key. Very ornately designed, and transforms into a knife to boot.

The Corpse Stops Here: Lampshaded if you press Lang on his being the first to find Mask DeMasque II's body. Edgeworth will point out that Kay was suspected because she was the first to discover Manny Coachen's body.

Cosmetically Advanced Prequel: Case 2 features a camera (possibly "smart" given the owner is described as playing with it) phone, while Apollo Justice has a (already slightly dated at the release) flip phone. Further, case 4, which is set before anything else in the series has a color video camera with sound, while the original Phoenix Wright Trilogy had all still pictures in black and white. The first case also had flat-screen televisions in the courthouse witness rooms that weren't there in the first 4 games.

Counterfeit Cash: One of the smuggling ring's various operations is the production of fake Zheng Fa currency, throwing Zheng Fa's economy into shambles. This is why Lang, who is an Interpol agent from Zheng Fa, is persistent in chasing after the ring.

Dark RepriseAmbassador Alba gains a darker, menacing version of the majestic Cohdopian national anthem as his new Leitmotif, which was previously used as the two ambassadors' leitmotif. The change is so dramatic, you really have to listen really, REALLY closely in order to realize that it's the same piece, only played in a minor key and smoothed over heavily.

Disc-One Final Boss: Shih-na/Calisto Yew in case five. From the start of the case it's quite obvious to the observant player that Shih-na is really Calisto Yew and likely the guilty party in the murder of Manny Coachen. When you finally corner her however, she says that while she's Calisto Yew, she really had nothing to do with Coachen's death. Moreover, the murder of Mask DeMasque II is still unresolved, making it obvious that there's still a long way to go in this case.

Distressed Dude: Miles Edgeworth, twice; he's handcuffed in his seat early in Case 2, and in Case 3, he's ambushed by the kidnappers and tied up.

The Dragon: Calisto Yew who works for Quercus Alba's syndicate and is his accomplice in the final episode. It is also highly likely that Manny Coachen is the second in command of the ring. Of course, that makes Manny Coachen a Dragon with an Agenda when he tries to backstab Alba.

The flashback cases are full of this from the player's point of view (and no doubt a "Funny Aneurysm" Moment from the point of view of the characters): for example, when von Karma tells Miles that he must become a famous prosecutor because "otherwise, it wouldn't be interesting", Miles seems to take this as reassurance, whereas any player who's followed the AA series will realize that this is some rather ominous foreshadowing of Case 4 in the first Ace Attorney game. There's also one example that doubles as Foreshadowing: Edgeworth says that no man is above the law. Von Karma disagrees, saying there are people like that. To the player who knows von Karma killed Edgeworth's father, the implication is that the speaker is referring to himself. However, the very next case in Investigations deals with a criminal who hides behind his diplomatic immunity, making him "above the law".

Edgeworth and Von Karma's lamenting over the fact that Edgeworth would have to wait until a later case before he could conduct his first "perfect" case. In Trials & Tribulations Case 4 Edgeworth's first case ended prematurely, when Terry Fawles killed himself unwittingly due to Dahlia, resulting in a permanent mistrial.

Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Cammy Meele has these since she's constantly nodding off. Once her identity as the true murderer becomes apparent, she loses them.

Enemy Rising Behind: In the third case, when Edgeworth drops off the ransom money in an amusement park's Haunted House dining room and steps into the hall, a slumped, seemingly-lifeless costume stands up and begins creeping up behind him.

Evil Laugh: Calisto Yew/Shih-na and Quercus Alba both do this when cornered. The latter is lampshaded.

Zheng Fa is an Asian country that Shi Long Lang is from. A lot of it seems Chinese, although the structure of given names and the architecture of things we see like the Alif Red could also point to Thailand or Vietnam.

Boriginia is confirmed to be European, but few details exist other than that. Its people are fair haired and have extravagant, colorful clothing, so a Nordic background might be likely.

Cohdopia, as well as its constituent countries Allhebast and Babahl, only tell us that its European and abounds in natural beauty, particularly butterflies and flowers. It could be anywhere from the Mediterranean to the Balkans to the Baltics.

A Father to His Men: Shi-Long Lang, to all 99 of them. And he takes it to ridiculous extremes by remembering the birthday of the younger brother of the wife of the younger brother of one of his officers. When Lang's men are counting off, he gets mad at the MIB (his assistant) because he believes they are all number ones. Later, all 99 of them count off "1!", and at the end, the MIB says that probably all 99 of them are there. Taken to a more serious extreme in the final case, where he takes a (fortunately non-fatal) bullet for Shih-na, who had immediately prior been revealed as a traitor and a mole planted by the smuggling ring Lang had been investigating. His reasoning? Because no matter what kind of backstabbing wench she really is, she's still his subordinate, and he's responsible for her.

Flashback: The fourth case is a playable flashback. To a lesser extent, so are cases 2 and 3; they take place, respectively, two days and one day before the first case.

In case five, upon pressing Shih-na's last statement, Franziska mentions never wanting to know what it's like to be falsely accused. And then who does Lang accuse towards the end of the case? Subverted in that she was falsely falsely accused as a ruse to investigate Allebahst once more

In case 3, after Lang mocks Edgeworth's investigative skills, Shih-na comments that she can barely contain her laughter in a deadpan tone. At first, it seems like a throwaway line, but it makes a lot of sense after you discover that Shih-na is actually the human laugh track known as Calisto Yew, and is indeed holding back her laughter, since she's talking to Edgey.

The shadow of the Yatagarasu is caused by not one object as Franziska assumed, but a combination of multiple things. So's the real deal.

Along those lines, the real kidnapper of Lance Amano is three people, including Lance Amano himself.

Framing Device: Case 4 is being discussed by Kay and Edgeworth to help Edgeworth recall how they came to cross paths originally during the conclusion of Case 3. Interesting since the first side of the frame is established in the epilogue of case 3 but the other side of it isn't seen until the end of case 4, which can push the Framing Device out of mind until case 4 wraps up, at which point the player remembers what was happening before the flashback started.

Frothy Mugs of Water: In "Turnabout Airlines," all the dark red stuff that is very obviously wine is never called anything but "grape juice." In the original Japanese (for all the Ace Attorney games too), it was... still grape juice. Go figure.

Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the first case, Edgeworth says he's going to do "what I always do in court: I'm going to cross-examine him." But throughout the series, cross-examining is depicted as virtually exclusively the defense's job, and the only time Miles has ever been seen doing it was when he was posing as a defense attorney in "Bridge to the Turnabout" in Trials and Tribulations.

One testimony in the third case is incredibly bizarre. Lang says that it was no coincidence that Lauren Paups and Oliver Deacon/Colin Devorae were reunited in the Amano house, and thus the two of them were able to plan the kidnapping as a father-daughter team. The correct answer is to prove that there were three kidnappers to disprove Lang's description of the kidnapping as a two-person job. This bit is particularly infuriating because Edgeworth's inner monologue outright misleads you as to what you're meant to do. It somewhat makes sense in retrospect, but it's one of those pieces of Ace Attorney-logic where you have to completely forget about what you just proved and concentrate on the one statement that you know is false.

Around the same time, we have Lauren Paups' testimony about how she fears she may have killed her father with the gun she got from her boyfriend. The obvious contradiction is that the gun she has is very obviously the fake gun from the Bad Badger suit, and thus she couldn't have killed anyone with it. The correct contradiction is that the man she supposedly shot in self-defense was using his left hand to hold his weapon instead of his right. You're liable to burn up half your meter presenting information related to the gun on various statements (at least three are directly related to the gun) before you finally present the dossier with the minuscule detail about Devorae's dominant hand.

Height Angst: Young Fransizka von Karma does not take kindly to being used as an example of someone who wouldn't reach the window in the flashback case of Ace Attorney Investigations.

Hoist by His Own Petard: In the final case , Quercus Alba shows you a wound he got defending himself to prove that Demasque2's murder was self-defense (even though the wound was really from a separate incident). Later on, when you find unknown blood at the murder scene, the fact that he showed you this wound is the only reason you can prove that it's possible that Alba bled at the scene and that the blood could be his. Edgeworth even calls on it after he discovers that the Yatagarasu's Key was the weapon used to injure Alba. After all, it was Alba himself that left the blade on the victim's corpse, expecting it to be discovered. The entire case seems to be an example of this. Alba plotted everything that happened at the embassy in advance and kicked it off by sending the Yatagarasu's card, which was supposed to pin the whole smuggling ring on Coachen and then conveniently kill him off to keep him from doing the same and then becoming the new kingpin.

Honor Before Reason: Lang takes a bullet in the leg for Shih-na and cites his responsibility to protect his subordinates, no matter who they might be.

Interface Spoiler: Franziska was called "von Karma" in the text boxes in the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, but it is now "Franziska" in this game. Manfred himself shows up in the flashback case. Granted, Edgeworth does call her by her first name when speaking to or about her.

Jump Scare: Admit it, while "scare" may be rather strong of a word, Larry popping out of the fountain in the last case made you jump a bit.

Karmic Death: Mack Rell is hired to kill someone. After he carries out the shooting, the person who hired him to do it kills him with the same gun.

Killing in Self-Defense: The culprit of "Turnabout Ablaze" insists that the killing of Ka-Shi Nou was an act of self-defense, though it's heavily implied to be a lie and ultimately a moot point seeing as he committed another murder on the same evening that very clearly wasn't self-defense.

In case 5, Kay describes Edgeworth's "Logic" ability through the sound effect it makes when you trigger it.

In the same case, Quercus Alba compares the whole thing to a game (though that's more a product of his incredible arrogance), and Larry Butz does not like the introduction he gets in Edgeworth's internal monologue.

Like Father, Like Son: Ernest and Lance Amano in case 3. Initially, Ernest seems to be a wishy-washy old man while Lance is a timid young kidnapping victim; however, both are ruthless, conniving individuals to stop at nothing to achieve their own ends, even if it means supporting a vast criminal conspiracy and covering up a murder.

Little Girls Kick Shins: Kay in Case 4. It looks like she hits Edgeworth in the back of the knee, but the lack of detail in the sprites and the severity of his reaction could mean it was actually a Groin Attack...

Marathon Villain: Quercus Alba, who will take great pride in shooting down Edgeworth's logical arguments by abusing his extraterritorial rights. This turns into an annoying struggle to find any way to convict him.

The Mole: Calisto Yew/Shih-na to not only Interpol but to the Yatagarasu.

Mood Whiplash: Case 4, From Kay Faraday standing up for Gumshoe to "I'm...not...gonna...cryyyyyyyyyyy!" to Kay blowing her nose on Edgeworth's cravat.

Earlier on, Kay stands up for Gumshoe, comically trying to pick a fight with Edgeworth, until he pacifies her with a Swiss roll. Then she says that she was saving it for her father. At that exact moment everyone in the room remembers that she's the daughter of the victim.

Morton's Fork: After the killer of Case 5 is finally defeated, Edgeworth smugly asks whether said killer would like to first be tried in the US's / Japan's courts or Allebahst's, not that it matters because "either way, it's game over for you."

Obstructive Bureaucrat: Subverted. The hardest part of pursuing the main villain is a government-sanctioned reason up until Shi-Long Lang and Interpol manage to convince his home country to remove that protection.

Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Quercus Alba's trial. We don't see it (because it would just be a rehash of everything that's gone before), but several supporting characters show up just to watch Edgeworth tear the defendant a new one, and he doesn't disappoint.

Only a Flesh Wound: Lang gets shot in the leg partway through case five, but he apparently just walks it off.

Passing the Torch/Take Up My Sword: Kay Faraday does this. She finds her father's diary and believes him to be the Yatagarasu, taking on the title and mission of Stealing Truth for herself. She's...not quite as effective, though at the end of the game she's got new resolve to gather allies and do it like he did.

Rapunzel Hair: Cammy Meele's hair goes almost all the way down to her knees.

Real Men Wear Pink: In addition to the title character's berry-red suit, Detective Badd has a pink lollipop.

Revealing Cover-Up: In "Turnabout Ablaze", Shih-na and Alba use a black cloth to cover-up the fact that they were switching statues between the embassies, giving off the impression that the Yatagarasu was flying in the air (which is ironic, considering the Yatagarasu ended up besting them in the end).

Right for the Wrong Reasons: In "Turnabout Reminiscence," Edgeworth solves the mystery of Byrne Faraday's death by naming Calisto Yew as the real Yatagarasu, and thus the murderer. He's right that she's the real Yatagarasu, but he's wrong in assuming that Faraday wasn't — three persons were the original Yatagarasu.

Say My Name: When he's finally defeated, Quercus Alba yells Edgeworth's name so forcefully that he can't even complete the word before he goes into full-on screaming.

Schizo Tech: It is a bit odd to see a flat-screen television in the courthouse defendant lobbies hooked up to VCR players, though in fairness it is there for security tapes and many places still use old school tapes for security.

This manages to trip over itself in the context of the larger Ace Attorney franchise. Despite "the present day" of this era of the series referring to the years between 2016 and 2019, the technology in use is reckoned to the early 2000s at bestnote As this is the time period the original trilogy was released on Game Boy Advance, given the standards of cell phones carried by the characters or the lack of flat-panel PC monitors. But the aforementioned flat-screen TV not only looks out of place among these dated technologies but appears during a case set five years before "the present day", which makes its presence even more of an anomaly than it already is.

Edgeworth: Lance Amano! I propose that you killed Mr. Deacon with the revolver in the haunted house!

Lang gets an awesomely fitting one near the end: "Your diplomatic immunity *dramatic point* has just been revoked!"

Kay at one point mixes up a baby mobile with a ceiling fan. When Edgeworth says she's confused the two she replies: "No! They spin those babies right round! Like a record!", referencing the band Dead or Alive.

Soundtrack Dissonance: While Calisto Yew's theme seems like the appropriate track to be played after Shih-na's Reveal, the upbeat theme doesn't mesh well with the fact that she was Laughing Mad not even a second ago.

Staring Contest: The fourth case reveals that Edgeworth once won a glaring contest against his own reflection. Somehow.

Stealth Pun: The Yatagarasu's Key is an object from the Codophian Embassy stolen by the Yatagarasu. The national symbol of Codophia is a butterfly and butterfly symbols emblazon the handle of the artifact. The secret of the key is the fact it has two ends, the other of which can be used as a knife. It changes form by the handles swinging around to cover the currently exposed side, hence it is a butterfly knife.

Edgeworth:OBJECTION! Ms. Teneiro! Teneiro: Wh-Why are you shouting all of a sudden?! Edgeworth:(Argh! Force of habit!)

The Syndicate: The international smuggling ring that Interpol is investigating. Through the course of the game (3 days), Edgeworth proves that two of this ring's members committed murders, and finally takes down the ringleader (the Big Bad of the game).

Tap on the Head: Edgeworth takes a solid hit by the Proto Badger/Lance in the third case, leaving him out of it long enough for his assailant to move him halfway across an amusement park. He's a little woozy when he comes to, but he's perfectly fine otherwise.

Edgeworth isn't unconscious the whole time, as he briefly wakes up while being transported to the storage room. He passes back out shortly, which can be attributed to claustrophobia resulting from the DL-6 incident. This is when Edgeworth is being transported in the Badgermobile, and he can overhear the heavy rainstorm, as well as snippets of Lance talking to Lauren remotely, telling her that Colin has betrayed the group and to meet at the hideout (presumably so he can give her the prop gun and stage the fake murder).

Edgeworth: I suppose this is the Pink Badger? But since it has the same design, doesn't it seem forced to call this one a female? Kay: You think so? I mean, just look at how long her eyelashes are! Edgeworth: That's the only difference. Kay: And the fact that she's pink. Edgeworth: Yes, and? Kay: And her lips are red! See, lipstick! Edgeworth: (What? She has nothing to say about the giant pink ribbon, or is that too obvious?)

Wham Shot: Things have already taken an interesting turn in Turnabout Ablaze, when evidence comes up that (seemingly) points to Shih-na being the one who murdered Manny Coachen. However, the real twist comes when when, upon being confronted about said evidence, Shih-na suddenly starts letting out a very familiar laugh from Turnabout Reminiscence.

What Would X Do?: Edgeworth does this twice. Although the "X" is never named, Edgeworth is obviously referring to Phoenix.

Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Edgeworth fears earthquakes so profoundly that a bad spot of turbulence on an airplane triggers his phobia. He passes out and lies unconscious for a full ten minutes.

You Keep Using That Word: At one point, Prosecutor Portsman claims that there is a "mountain of evidence" pointing away from him. If you press him on this point, however, it turns out his "mountain of evidence" isn't really evidence at all; simply a claim regarding his supposed lack of motive. Edgeworth hangs a lampshade on this:

Edgeworth: ...Might I recommend that you review what the word "evidence" means.

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Ace Attorney Investigations 2

Acting Your Intellectual Age: Judging from Gregory Edgeworth's comments, Miles was stoic and serious even as a kid. His father even laments that he'd rather read law books than fairy tales, and that it seems unlikely he'll be able to get along with kids his own age.

Artistic License  Physics: In the first case, a pistol with a Laser Sight is treated as a poor choice for an assassin because it would immediately give away the shooter's position. This is a fair assessment to some degree, but everyone's dialogue and the game's artwork implies that in this universe, the laser was a visible beam of light and not just a single point. Possibly justified by the fact it had been raining, and the moisture in the air would make the beam more visible, but still counts because no one mentions the weather as a reason. Note that the game itself is a bit inconsistent about this, with the laser appearing as a line in one photo and a dot in another.

Lotta can be spotted in AAI, and it's implied she takes a picture important to the case, but she's never identified. She plays a very significant role in the last two cases of GK2, and actually gets a sprite this time.

Remember Gregory Edgeworth? You get to play as him in case 3 of the sequel and find out what really inspired von Karma to take his life.

That nameless chief prosecutor from the first main series game who gave von Karma his penalty? He shows up here in the sequel, gets a name, and acts as one of the Dragons to the Bigger Bad.

The initial victims of cases 1 and 4 survive, necessitating that two additional people get killed.

Subverted in Case 3. The present portion of the case seemingly has no victim, until a body is found. Turns out, it's the same victim from 18 years ago, whose body was never found.

Amoral Attorney: Blaise Debeste, the former Chief Prosecutor and current head of the P.I.C. In addition to his present-day jackassery, he also turns out to have been the instigator of DL-6 (indirectly) and the prosecutor who disgraced the Lang family.

Arc Symbol: The Lion Lilies in Case 5. The flowers appear constantly in several locations, including a reenactment of the scene of the SS-5 Incident. The flower's meaning is "the bond between parent and child", the Central Theme of the game. The bouquet of Lion Lilies turn out to even be the final evidence that needs to be presented in order to bring down the Big Bad.

Di-Jun Huang's impostor, the man who prepared the president's assassination and poses as him for years, is killed by the game's Big Bad.

Dane Gustavia barely survives Katherine Hall's attempt to make him this in Revenge for indirectly ruining her and Jeff Master's lives by being the true IS-7 killer.

Back for the Finale: Every surviving character from the first two cases except for Jay Elbird and Frank Sahwit return to play some role in the final case.

Batman Gambit: As it turns out, Simon Keyes's entire plan and therefore the game's entire conflict was about this trope, with some elements of Xanatos Gambit in it.

In Episode 1, he manipulated Knightley by suggesting to him that killing Ethan Rooke would work; aware of Knightley's inferiority complex did he succeed in having him succumb.

In Episode 2, he manipulated the evidence, using Patricia Roland's intense dislike of Sirhan Dogen to trick her into believing falsely that Knightley was an agent of Dogen, provoking her into killing him.

Episode 4 is where the Batman Gambit and Xanatos Gambit tropes most clearly overlap and come into the play: he set up a meeting between Blaise Debeste and Jill Crane, where he, by communicating their secrets, would design it so that one would kill the other. If Jill kills Blaise? Great, revenge achieved. If Blaise kills Jill (which he did)? Well then it's a good thing Simon also kidnapped Kay and made it look like she was working together with Jill. Blaise would then either kill Kay, or frame her for Jill's murder (which is what happened). Whatever he chose would ensure that Edgeworth would do everything in his power to get Blaise arrested.

Episode 5 was when it all came to light.

Be All My Sins Remembered: Edgeworth's checkered past as Manfred von Karma's disciple haunts him for most of the game, especially when Raymond Shields returns and he comes under suspicion by the P.I.C. He is pretty much the only one who doesn't bristle at "Uncle Ray's" bitter anger toward him, since Shields had every reason to feel that he had betrayed his father Gregory by joining Von Karma.

Blood-Stained Letter: Case 4 features a bloody letter due to it being on the body when it was impaled.

Body Double: Di-Jun Huang has been impersonated for years since his murder.

Brick Joke: The brick from the first game bounces and lands again in case 5, where Lang is working with only one of his subordinates, who offers to count off to cheer Lang up. When he realizes just "one" is unimpressive, he starts going through various ways of saying "one".

Sebastian stops being a "Well Done, Son!" Guy after Blaise reveals his treachery through the final two cases of the sequel (as well as being a heartless jerk towards Sebastian). Curiously, however, he still says he thanks his father for bringing him to where he is now, although he refuses to walk along the same path any longer.

It's very clear by the second game that the pedestal Franziska held her father and his ideals on has crumbled, since she actively avoids directly referring to him, except where Sebastian is concerned, and even then, she doesn't often say "my Papa" like she used to. The one time she does, it's because she's in shock from learning exactly what caused the black mark on his record all those years ago. On the rare occasions where she does refer to her father, it is without the pride she used to always use when talking about him, usually indirectly comparing him to Sebastian's father.

Kay: That person... he really loves his father, doesn't he...? Franziska: However... one must be able to accept the mistakes of their father... However much they may look up to them...

Shelley once again falls under this trope, having another client that betrays his trust.

But Thou Must!: A more comedic example. When we first meet Raymond, he gives Edgey a pop-quiz: What is the name of the room Knightley was murdered in? The three choices are "Lecture Room", "Morgue", and "Entertainment Room". The correct answer is "Workroom".

Call-Back: A rather ironic one: the image of the conspirators in the sequel (Patricia Roland, Blaise Debeste, and Di-Jun Huang's body double) eerily mimics the image of the Yatagarasu trio from the first game (Calisto Yew, Tyrell Badd, and Byrne Faraday).

Phoenix and Maya appear during case 5, although here it's easier to generate than in the first game, because it happens during an investigation taking place in the same area so it's much more likely you'll examine the spot that triggers the cameo.

In case 3, Ron and Desirée DeLite from Trials and Tribulations can be found... "admiring"... a sculpture in the Winter Palace room.

Central Theme: Gets more and more obvious with time: "The bonds between parent and child" and by consequence, the influence of a parent in their child's life and vice-versa. The entire game, particularly after Ray appears draws constant parallels between Miles and Gregory. Sebastian is the victim of an abusive father and this turns him into a "Well Done, Son!" Guy with little interest in anything besides getting the love of his father becoming instantly more competent and grounded once he decides to turn his back to his father. Other Abusive Parents also appear in the game, namely Gustavia and Dover who respectively only used his son for his work and the other threatened his son to kidnap his friend, both are considered inhumane by the other characters and severely messed up their sons.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have Courtney and John. Courtney actively states that carrying an image of her son around with her gives her strength and courage in her job and John, being Happily Adopted is a incredibly well adjusted, if a little hot headed, kid, who even tampered the crime scene in order to help his mom and refused to avenge his father simply because he knew that it would make his mom sad. Their healthy and loving relationship is a Foil to the Abusive Parents in the game and shows how far in the side of the good Courtney really is. The end shows that John also respects his biological parents, who truly cared for him after all. Miles lampshades to Courtney that the Goddess of Law is also a motherly one, since she understands attenuating circumstances, like Courtney's own.

The Big Bad, Simon Keyes was betrayed and abused by every authority figure they should be able to rely on, including his father and the caretaker of the orphanage he was in. The former only used him for his career and the later tortured him in an attempt to keep him quiet about the SS-5 Incident. When he seems to have found a Parental Substitute in Sirhan Dogen, it's implied that Sirhan has softened to him and he became the one person Simon actually relies to, becoming a Family of Choice.

Several main characters struggle with their relationship with their parents in the end of the game. Lang, in the last case, is attempting to solve the case that send his family into shame, particularly, his father several of the evidences he gather are actually what his father could gather with his own investigation. Franziska has decided to leave her father's influence behind her, and make something of herself, independent of whatever her father did in the past. The end of the game shows that Gregory is still a huge influence in Edgeworth's life, even as he intends to keep on being a prosecutor, he intends to take his father teachings with him about how to save people. The ending implies that Kay will also attempt to get out of her father's shadow and start her own path as the Yatagarasu.

Chekhov's Boomerang: Knightley's chessboard, ring, the correspondence chess memo, and the photo of Dover and Gustavia with their sons. The Moozilla doll owned by the president also gets quite a bit of legwork in the last two cases after showing up in case 1.

Horace Knightley and Simon Keyes seem to have paid off in the first two cases, but they're still important later on.

A boy with strange headgear makes brief appearances in the third and fourth case. He enters the plot in the fifth one.

The Chessmaster: The Big Bad, Simon Keyes, both literally and metaphorically. Has orchestrated a plan that involves criminals getting their comeuppance throughout the game.

Chess Motifs: Repeatedly. Besides Logic Chess and the physical chessboards in Dogen's cell, Edgeworth's office, and Knightley's case, there are a lot of characters who are metaphorical chess pieces. Knightley and Rooke are obvious examples, but there are more subtle nods, like Sebastian Debeste, who would surely claim to be a King while unaware that the King is the weakest piece on the board.

Continuity Cavalcade: Grand Tower's 51st floor. It turns out to be a single room full of evidence sold for the black market auction on the 50th floor. The evidence ranges from the real Alif Red statue from I-2 to Redd White's office desk from way back in 1-2.

There are reappearances of "John Doe" (Shelly de Killer), Frank Sahwit, Polly the Parrot and Gourd Lake. Plus, there is a flashback case involving Gregory Edgeworth.

Pretty much the entire Case 3 is this. But it doesn't stop there — you also find out who the Chief Prosecutor who gave Manfred Von Karma the penalty was and who brought down Lang's family reputation in Zheng Fa.

The last two statements in Frank Sahwit's "When I Found the Body" are direct references to his testimony from the original game:

Witness Sahwit: Then I saw her lying there... A woman... not moving... dead! I quailed in fright and found myself unable to go inside.

Prisoner Sahwit: Then I saw him lying there... A man... not moving... dead! I quailed in fright and found myself letting out a scream.

Demoted to Extra: Gumshoe in the second game, though it doesn't kick in until after the first case, when Loads and Loads of Characters start showing themselves. Raymond takes the role of Edgeworth's Lancer while still providing comic relief, while Sebastian fills the clueless logic comedy Gumshoe used to provide, leaving him with less and less screentime as the game goes on. After Case 2, his only real role is to occasionally transfer evidence and make arrests. To drive it home, AAI 2 is also the first game in the series where he never gets to testify.

Dialogue Tree: Logic Chess combines this with a Timed Mission: Edgeworth has to extract information from certain characters by giving the proper replies and asking the right questions. The player must choose wisely between the two or three options available at a time.

Difficulty Spike: The final villain of Case 3 is much harder to crack than anything beforehand. Later, Case 5's Big Bad jacks the regular penalty for presenting wrong evidence up from 10% to 30%, and a whopping 50% for the final testimony.

Manfred Von Karma in Case 3. Justified, as Gregory never had a chance to confront the real killer, a Foregone Conclusion.

Sirhan Dogen in both of the cases in which he features. You even get the Presto theme during his testimony in the last case.

Distressed Dude: Sebastian in case 5 of AAI2 is accidentally kidnapped by his father's men when he's mistaken for another boy. Kay and Edgeworth find him Bound and Gaggedin his own house while investigating and have to free him. He's pretty heavily traumatized by the incident, and it's up to Edgeworth to get him back on his feet.

Downer Ending: It's a Foregone Conclusion that the flashback portion of Case 3 isn't going to end well. Fortunately, von Karma's eventual downfall is also established in canon.

Dramatic Irony: In "The Grand Turnabout", Kay says that she doesn't see anyone special around her either as the camera pans up to reveal Phoenix and Maya across the street.

Enhance Button: Twice. The first time is in case 2, where you must examine surveillance footage from the detention center to determine who was attacked by what in the holding cell. The second time is in case 5, where you enhance the practice video. This could easily have been Hand Waved by saying that everything in the near future (the game's setting) is recorded in HD, including surveillance footage, and that "enhancing" it is actually just zooming in to video data that's already there. Instead, Lang mentions that "the police have a device that lets you analyze the video footage up close and personal", effectively making it this trope.

Even Evil Has Standards: Sirhan Dogen, the feared blind assassin who's pulled off countless jobs, once saved the life of two boys his guide dog found freezing to death in a car on a particularly cold winter day. He brought them to a local orphanage, and later kept in touch with one of them over the years through correspondence chess because he helped him escape being killed by clients from a hit. In Case 5, he pleads with Shelly deKiller for the life of that same boy, and succeeds.

Foregone Conclusion: Victory in the second game's third case seems shallow when you're already aware that it's the very case that puts a stain on Manfred von Karma's spotless record and drives him to murder Gregory Edgeworth. With that established, the point of final, big confrontation of Gregory's segment is not proving who the killer is, but proving von Karma forged evidence.

In the first case, Huang's body double "survives" his staged assassination attempt because he supposedly had on a bulletproof vest (it was prepared ahead of time). It's then mentioned how even while wearing a bulletproof vest, the impact from a bullet can still hurt you and even break your bones. In the final case, the body double is killed for real. He was crushed to death, with every bone in his body broken.

Given Courtney's age (26), it's really unlikely that she could be the biological mother of John Marsh (13). Then "The Grand Turnabout" rolls around, and you find out that she isn't.

Forged Message: A plot point involves a hidden mastermind manipulating individuals by typing letters signed as other people, predicting that a few key words would push them to act as the mastermind wanted.

For Want of a Nail: The entire series would not exist if not for Isaac Dover, who made his son kidnap and detain Dane Gustavia's son. Without his son to taste his food for him, Gustavia had no hope of winning the dessert contest, forcing him to sneak into Jeff Master's room and take a picture of the cure to his taste disorder, where Dover caught him and threatened him with blackmail. This led to Gustavia killing Dover, Kate finding the body, Gustavia hiding the body before the cops showed up, and Kate accidentally hiding the body even more. Since the cops Never Found the Body, von Karma received his first penalty and had his precious perfect record ruined, causing him to murder Gregory Edgeworth and adopt Miles, turning him into a infamously ruthless prosecutor, which made Phoenix decide to become a defence lawyer in order to face him in court and find out why he had changed so much.

Found the Killer, Lost the Murderer: Edgeworth discovers that Shelly de Killer had been hired to assassinate the President in the first case but is unable to find out who hired him before he escapes. On top of that, it turns out he hadn't killed anyone that day anyways.

Friend on the Force: Detective Gumshoe more than usual in this game; when Jurisdiction Friction forces Edgeworth out of the official investigation, Gumshoe (reluctantly) assists Debeste but passes any useful information on to Edgeworth and Raymond Shields. Detective Badd played a similar role for Gregory Edgeworth in the IS-7 incident, for similar reasons.

Go Through Me: When Sirhan Dogen shows up at the climax, Judge Courtney's sprite does the "hug" pose with John Marsh.

Played with. The corrupt organization encompassing P.I.C. head Blaise Debeste, prison warden Patricia Roland and Zheng Fa "president" (really body double) Di-Juan Huang is significantly and obviously more powerful, influential and menacing than the game's actual Big BadSimon Keyes, but they aren't the ones who drive and instigate the main conflict. In fact, he ends up destroying them all behind the scenes, thus technically elevating himself to a similar scope.

In particular, Blaise Debeste ends up being this to the original trilogy due to being the Chief Prosecutor who gave von Karma his one penalty, which would drive Manfred to commit murder and start the DL-6 incident. It's actually even worse as he was the one who forged the evidence von Karma used anyway, with the penalty being just a way to turn the prosecutor into a scapegoat for his corruption.

Guide Dang It!: The Logic Chess battle against Blaise Debeste in Case 4. Among other things, it requires you to go back on previous lines of questioning to discover options that weren't there before.

Happily Ever Before: The game ends with one corrupt scumbag revealed and Edgeworth securely on his path in life — to reform the justice system. Too bad the Dark Age of the Law is just about to begin...

Interface Spoiler: In Case 1, you can talk to your partner, Kay. She'll reveal Nicole fired a laser pointer at the President's head before you find it out yourself.

Ironic Echo: Two near the end: first, Shelly de Killer repeats Edgeworth's "It's game over" line after the final villain is taken down, and during the ending of the case, Courtney mentions "the contradiction of law", which Shields had spoken about earlier.

Irony: Ray Shields points out at the end of case 3 in Investigations 2 that the very technicality that allowed the real killer to be apprehended could quite possibly be the element that sets him free as well: the statue of limitations was on hold during the year of Master's trial as a supposed accomplice to the murder. There's no way to hold Gustavia without accepting Master's conviction as genuine; conversely, showing Master to be entirely innocent means the statute had expired and the killer can go free.

In what continues what has so far been a series-long tradition, Shelly De Killer didn't face any comeuppance for his actions (but to be fair, he didn't succeed in killing anyone).

Dogen is an interesting play on this trope. At the start of the game, he is sitting in a luxury prison cell. At the end of the game, he is sitting in a luxury prison cell. And the game never properly resolves the fact that this Professional Killer had access to a dog, a luxury cell, and (as was revealed in Episode 5) is able to get out of prison whenever it suits him.

Shields reveals that it's still possible for Dane Gustavia to get Off on a Technicality even after being caught, as his conviction relies heavily upon Jeff Master's accomplice charge, though it's also implied that the law can be changed in time for this to be averted.

Justine Courtney uses fabricated evidence to get Kay arrested for murder, and withholds evidence that would remove her from investigative authority in Case 4, and she receives no comeuppance for this illegal shenanigans.

As were childhood friends Horace Knightley and Simon Keyes. When Simon regained his memories, he also got a few things mixed up, such as who his father was and who Knightley's father was.

Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the final confrontation of the second game, the villain boasts that if Edgeworth is so confident in his case, he shouldn't have any problem accepting a greater risk. The Life Meter then appears to show that a wrong answer will cause you to lose half of the meter, causing Edgeworth to exclaim "THAT much???" Just what were they referring to in-universe, one wonders?

Ray constantly makes mention of the similarities between both Edgeworths. The game even allows the player to play as Gregory in the third case, who makes the same remarks as Miles in multiple situations. They even have the exact same opinion about Katherine's desserts being too sweet for their taste.

Deconstructed with Dane Gustavia and Simon Keyes. Simon hated Gustavia for killing Isaac Dover, because a traumatic near-death experience had jumbled his memories and caused him to think that Dover was his father and not Gustavia. However, both Simon and Gustavia have the same habit of laughing maniacally when they believe there is no way their plans can fail, and Simon uses the exact same method of preserving the body of his victim that Gustavia had used: by freezing it, to throw off the time of death. This is lampshaded by Edgeworth while he's cornering Keyes for the crime.

Blaise and Sebastian Debeste have a shared tendency to believe they are more clever and brilliant than they actually are, to say nothing of certain childish quirks like playing with objects while they talk. They also got to their high positions by taking advantage of others. However, Sebastian had no idea his father 'helped' him so much (and is genuinely dismayed to find out) and decides to do things on his own merits once it all comes to light.

Locked Room Mystery: Played with in Case 5, which features a locked rooftop mystery. Lampshaded in this case.

Luxury Prison Suite: Dogen has one in the detention center that looks more like a Buddhist shrine than a cell. Justified in that he's blackmailing the warden.

Mexican Standoff: The last case has one between De Killer and Dogen — each has a knife to the other's throat.

Jeff Master. He confesses to the crime because the prosecution threatens to charge Katherine for being an accomplice. Gregory Edgeworth is able to prove that the confession was coerced, but is unable to prove that the body was falsified due to a coverup in the higher ranks of the prosecutor's office.

This trope is also the reason Simon Keyes decides to enact justice on his own — knowing the Prosecutor's Office was corrupt at the highest level, he never dared come forward with the truth. Edgeworth resolves to spend the rest of his life as an Internal Reformist so that people can trust the Prosecutor's Office again.

Missing Floor: Edgeworth is able to deduce this in the fourth case, where he compares the photo of the Grand Tower in the newscast to the photo in the pamphlet.

At one point in case 3, you're required to point out the apparent contradiction between a tablecloth on a tea cart being white and Larry drawing it as blue. However, the shade of blue in question is so pale that it looks like it's actually white with a bluish tint due to lighting. (Eat your heart out, blue dress!) To make matters worse, you'll probably waste half your life bar on a much more obvious contradiction—the actual tea cart has a tea set on top of it, whereas the drawing has a pile of chocolates.

One example that isn't especially uncommon in this series: near the end of case 4, Courtney testifies that Crane walked to the viewing platform, where she was attacked by Kay. There are several pieces of evidence that directly contradict this assertion as to the location of the murder, but only one is actually accepted if you try to object.

At one point in case 5, you have to present evidence showing that an area was burned after a large amount of blood was spilled there. The problem is that you have both the bloodstain and the fire in your evidence: one of them will let you proceed, while presenting the other inexplicably gets you a penalty.

Mundane Utility: In most cases, the Logic Chess segments are used to weasel info out of people who are being uncooperative by carefully guiding them to giving up information. In the final case, Edgeworth uses it to try to shake Sebastian Debeste out of his his misery. Interestingly, despite being a more mundane use, it's actually the longest and most involved Logic Chess battle in the game (which shows how bad off he really is).

Mysterious Waif: The "Mysterious Girl" brought to Edgeworth's office in Case 4. She is very quickly revealed to be an amnesiac Kay Faraday.

Never Found the Body: The body of the victim of the IS-7 incident disappeared before the autopsy, meaning the report Manfred von Karma used in the trial was a forgery. Edgeworth and company Finally Found the Body 15 years later when they revisited the case at Raymond Shields' request.

Non-Standard Game Over: Giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Sebastian in the game's final Logic Chess match will result in you being hit with a 100% penalty, resulting in an instant failure at the match. (You don't get an actual game over, because losing at Logic Chess only costs you a sliver of your Life Meter and forces you to start over, but the same principle applies, since other mistakes only cost you a tiny percentage of the Logic Chess timer, while this one wipes out the whole thing.)

Not So Different: Several of the characters, in an attempt to defeat their personal nemeses, use exactly the same evil methods they use. Roland and Dogen both hide weapons in their respective pets' mouths; Jill Crane and Blaise both try to ambush each other during the black market auction; and Simon and Blaise both try to kidnap the judge's child to influence a trial's outcome. Simon also shares several mannerisms with Dane Gustavia, his father who he despised. He even uses the same method as Gustavia to throw off a victim's time of death, which Edgeworth points out.

Origins Episode: Remember the trial where Manfred von Karma got his first penalty? The IS-7 incident is what the trial was about.

Paper-Thin Disguise: Shelly de Killer is able to walk about completely undetected while sporting his signature shell design on his "ice cream salesman" outfit. Even Edgeworth is kicking himself afterward for not recognizing it.

Resolved Noodle Incident: In the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy, all that was revealed of Gregory's final case was that Gregory's managed to get von Karma penalized for faulty evidence, which is basically why the DL-6 Incident, and by extension, the original trilogy, happened. Investigations 2 would end up revealing the major details, including making Gregory playable in a flashback.

Revealing Cover-Up: Subverted with Simon Keyes in "The Grand Turnabout". He inadvertently uses the hysteria surrounding Moozilla and Gourdy to cover-up the fake president's murder and his own involvement in the crime.

Say My Name: Blaise screams Sebastian's name after being defeated by him and Edgeworth in court.

Ship Tease: In "The Forgotten Turnabout", Edgeworth is unable to give a straight answer to Kay about the nature of their relationship after she's lost her memories.

Shoo the Dog: In case 4, Kay tries to drive Edgeworth away, believing that she's a criminal ruining the life of a good man. He doesn't listen. Edgeworth, in turn, prevents Gumshoe from following him when he surrenders his badge rather than remain a prosecutor in an openly corrupt system.

So Last Season: Extraterritorial rights are a major plot point in the first game; to the point where the final boss repeatedly invokes them in order to evade arrest. For several chapters. In the very first case of the second game, the President of Zheng Fa attempts to do the same...but Edgeworth quickly finds a way to nullify them, and they aren't mentioned ever again.

Soundtrack Dissonance: It seemed odd that the heroic and noble Great Revival heralds the arrival of Manfred von Karma. Out of a fairytale castle made of sweets, even.

Statute of Limitations: A major plot point in the IS-7 incident: the killer claims that they can't be arrested for their crime because the statute of limitations has already expired. Your job is to prove that it hasn't run out yet.

The President of Zheng Fa and his staff have Chess Motifs, with "Rooke" and "Knightley" having hair and collars that make them look like said chessmen. The President is the King, so what does he look like? A lion.

Elbird is a boxer on a Nintendo console. He is also a literal Bear Hugger.

Case 3 has one in the Japanese name for the cooking show, "Dansweets". The hosts sing and dance while making various confectionery items.

Tempting Fate: In Case 3, Ray says that von Karma reminds him of an old schoolteacher of his. Gregory Edgeworth comments in his inner monologue that he would hate to have his son being taught by someone like von Karma...

That One Case: IS-7, the case where Gregory caused Manfred von Karma to get a penalty. Then there's also SS-5, the case where the Lang family's reputation was tarnished.

In the IS-7 incident, an innocent person unknowingly manipulated the crime scene, leading the Chief Prosecutor at the time to forge evidence (because the victim's body had gone missing) and then stick Manfred von Karma with a penalty. This resulted in DL-6 and set up a whole host of problems for many characters in the series. The case's murderer could also be considered this, but he at least knew he was doing a despicable deed. Hell, the case's victim counts here. by forcing his son to kidnap Gustavia's, Gustavia had no choice but to sneakily take pictures of the medicine formula he was seeking. Dover tried to blackmail him over it, and got himself murdered as a result.

Isaac Dover's son prevented Simon Keyes from helping his father in IS-7. This led to the series of events that made Keyes manipulate the present day events.

Ray: He's a member of the circus, Knightley's friend...and Dane Gustavia's son. Wh-Who'd have thunk it...? Edgeworth: An apprentice beast tamer? Heh...he's no amateur. For the beast he has tamed is none other than this entire case! Simon Keyes!He is the mastermind behind this entire incident!

Word Association Test: Has elements of it. To kickstart Kay's memories, Edgeworth gives a chance for her to repeat after him. It turns into this trope.

Edgeworth:Bookcase.Kay: [beat] ...Broken safe.Edgeworth:Stained glass.Kay: ...Stolen goods.Edgeworth:Books on the law.Kay: ...Crooks on the lam.Edgeworth: [serious face] Statue of the goddess.Kay: [cowering] ...Snatched loot of the Great Thief.Edgeworth:(Are all of her mistakes biased towards a certain way...?)

Katherine Hall's trap against the real IS-7 killer has shades of this. She doesn't care if she gets caught in the end, so long as she ends up forcing the authorities to release Jeff Master and/or committing a Vigilante Execution to avenge him.

Edgeworth literally gets to do this with several major characters through the "Logic Chess" feature. Most notably Blaise Debeste.

Simon Keyes probably pulls off the craziest gambit ever. He plots an insane plan to kill not only his best friend, Knightley (whose actions somewhat impacted Dover's death, and Keyes had incorrectly believed that Dover was his father), but also the three co-conspirators who tried to kill his mentor, Sirhan Dogen. He manipulates the circumstances around him and waits for the perfect opportunity to stage the murders (the events of case 2 and 4) so that his own hands wouldn't be dirty in the process. The only murder he doesn't plan is that of the body double; however, he successfully throws off the time of death to divert suspicion from himself. He would've gotten away with it all, too, if he had destroyed the evidence on the bottom of the hot air balloon's basket.

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